Motion picture became a significant element of art practices as early as in the time of the avant-garde of the 1930s. However, as the creators of the Filmoteka point out, it was in the 1960s and 70s when a “seminal turn” took place, as film and photography gained increasing popularity among artists, becoming full-fledged means of artistic expression. Communist Poland also saw this turn: films are one of the most valuable works of Polish contemporary art. Moreover, film stock allowed to capture numerous “performances, happenings, interventions, manifestations, spectacles, exhibitions, etc.” from the era of Polish People's Republic.
Filmoteka of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw conducts research, collects, digitalises, and publishes the legacy of Polish art film. The oldest works date back to 1930s. The films from 1970s form the core of the collection, as this was the period marked by a profusion of productions from the neo-avant-garde milieu, and films made by members of the independent filmmakers-artists movement. Filmoteka continues to extend its collection by meticulously selecting contemporary films.
It contains both pictures shot privately and independently, using amateur equipment which were addressed to a handful of members of the grass-root movement of independent filmmakers, as well as films made by professional studios, e.g. the famous National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź.
Currently Filmoteka offers 800 films online along with a curator’s commentary, and has a 1.000 more motion pictures already collected on hard drives. Filmoteka’s target is to publish 1.500 films on its website.
The institutions sees its mission as “preserving artistic films threatened with destruction, produced and stored by their creators mainly at their private archives, in relatively amateur and extra-institutional conditions – films often existing in a single, much exploited copy.” Filmoteka secures, archives, creates digital copies and digitally reconstructs such films, and publishes them online afterward. The films are also made available to third party institutions for exhibition purposes. Filmoteka carries out educational activities in collaboration with art academies, which use the collection for didactic purposes. Moreover, Filmoteka actively participates in current exhibitions of the Museum and runs a research programme aimed at creating a narrative on the history of Polish art film.
Filmoteka team is realising two separate projects linked with this institution. The first one is the Museum of Modern Art and Polish Film Institute Film Award. The main prize is the funding for a feature-length film set between visual arts and traditional cinematography. The second project is the Kinomuzeum — a periodical, several-weeks-long, review of independent and art cinema from all over the world.
Although the key users of Filmoteka are persons related to Polish art and film milieus, as well as students of art academies, the website attracts searchers from around the world, also from outside Europe, which is especially visible right before major artistic events.
One of the crucial figures in the history of Filmoteka is Łukasz Ronduda, an art historian, curator and, since recently, a film director.
As he was working at another important art institution in Warsaw - the Centre for Contemporary Art, he began his research on the avant-garde of the 1970s.
During the study, while contacting artists, Ronduda collected a substantial number of films, which he made digital copies of, thus creating an archive of previously inaccessible materials from private collections stored on disused media. He proceeds to present these findings during exhibitions and previews. Ronduda’s archive became the cornerstone of the Filmoteka’s collection.
This period of intensive research concluded with the publication of the book titled Polish Art of the 70s in 2009, whose graphics were designed by artist Piotr Uklański.
In the same time the Museum of Modern Art was established, and its director, Joanna Mytkowska, assigned Ronduda with the task of creating Museum’s film department. Ronduda, as a curator, also contributed to the elaboration of the concept of the Museum itself.
The Museum commenced vigorous activities long before it received a temporary location (as of 2017 the Museum still does not have its definite location). This is one of the reasons why from the very start, Filmoteka is primarily an online project.
The building of the team and the professionalisation of the digitalisation and digital reconstruction processes were supported for many years by the Kultura+ funding programme of the Polish Ministry of Culture, operated by the National Audiovisual Institute (currently National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute).
“Democratic, open access is our priority” Łukasz Ronduda stresses “Modern art is not used to being made for the general public... [But rather] for the insiders, for the collectors. We chose a radically different vector: to use any means available to place it in the public domain.”
The collection is accessible online free of charge. The majority of artists shared their films free of charge; Filmoteka pays a licence fee for the pictures produced by professional institutions. The resurgence of artists from the 1970s in the contemporary art market — to large degree thanks to Ronduda’s research and publications that brought back their works — results in a certain complication. Occasionally, in order to purchase a film, the institution is obliged not to publish it online, which results in the film being removed. Ronduda comments this situation in the following manner: “Filmoteka would not be possible without the consent of the entire art milieu. Meaning the private galleries that sell.” “We have managed to convince both the gallery owners and the artists that placing these films in a large, publicly open collection available to everyone will have a great educational and promotional value. And that it will be, in a way, truthful for the materials from the 1970s, which were created without the context of the market.”
However, regardless of the commercialisation, the artists who donated their films gain certain benefits: a cleaned, digital copy, invitations to panels, festival, previews abroad, and even royalties for using fragments of their films in other films. Thus, Filmoteka offers also promotion and distribution.
The core of Filmoteka collection are experimental art films of the 1970s, created by members of the independent filmmakers movement, which was a part of broader, neo-avant-garde trend. “It was an independent milieu with its own original programmes at institutions, its own circuit, own communication exchange. An alternative world, if you will.” says Ronduda. Yet, “messages with explicitly opposition content rarely appeared. But then again, it was the time of a more structural art. Modern art in general uses a rather complicated formal language.” Nonetheless there were artists and circles that took openly critical opposing attitudes towards communism, such as Akademia Ruchu (Movement Academy), or the KwieKulik duo, Jerzy Treliński and the Repassage gallery. The entire broad movement was, however, “an anti-communist milieu. Contacts with the West were a priority; the participation in international exchange, a live artistic dialogue with Europe. A space for uninhibited reflection.”
Much of these cultural activities were tolerated or ignored by the authorities; Ronduda compares this with the status of the punk subculture: “the system needed to permit it as sort of safety valve, to vent this energy.”
Still, some of the artists faced persecution. Ronduda points to the case of Przemysław Kwiek and Zofia Kulik (KwieKulik) as a symptomatic example.
Although they supported communism, they wanted to improve the “real socialism”, to make it more democratic and open. “And they drew the attention of the secret service (SB).” says Ronduda “They were screwed even more than the anti-communist artists, who did their things among friendly, carefully vetted persons... Addressing the convinced. Convincing the convinced. This illustrates what was dangerous for the system. The danger was when someone from the inside wanted the system to function to the benefit of the people, of the workers, and not the party members oppressing the working class. This was very pro-democratic, linked to the noble ideas of open society.” Hence, KwieKulik found themselves excluded by the anti-communist artistic milieu, e.g. Foksal and Repassage galleries (as declared communists) and, at the same time, harassed by the state’s repressive apparatus as subversives.
Source:
Filmoteka Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, https://artmuseum.pl/pl/filmoteka/o-filmotece
